The Passing Storm(39)

“From what he’s told us, his parents rarely took him out. Burger joints or pancakes. Nothing fancier.”

Quinn’s parents were deadbeats. Better to relegate them to the past—she’d help Quinn move toward a better future. He was fitting into their homelife well, and quickly becoming her father’s sidekick.

In a lighter tone, she veered to another topic. “Want to guess who I ran into this morning? It was great.”

The bag rustled open. “Not Katherine Thomerson or Sally Harrow, I presume. Since you’re still avoiding them, you must mean someone else.”

“Don’t push, Yuna. Just because we’re besties doesn’t mean we have to like the same people. I can’t interact with any of the women whose daughters were at the slumber party. I just can’t. Every time I see one of them, I’m reminded of how I lost Lark. I just want to move on.”

“You are moving on. Look how you’ve opened your heart to Quinn. Change is hard, Rae. Even when it’s uncomfortable, you have to keep putting one foot in front of the next.”

“I am doing that—with Quinn.” In more ways than you understand. “It’s enough.”

Sheltering him gave Rae an unexpected means of making peace with the girl she’d once been. A girl that Yuna—although she’d been in the same grade, back in school—hadn’t known well. Yuna had been much more popular.

“Can’t you bend a little?” Yuna looked exasperated. “Sally’s not bad. She never has a mean word to say about anyone. You should give her a chance.”

“The truth? She’d irritate me less if she weren’t so tight with Katherine—and Katherine I can do without.”

“Are you sure you’re not misplacing your animosity?”

“What do you mean?”

“C’mon, Rae. Sally’s and Katherine’s daughters have been close since they were little . . . and Lark was on the outside. The friend they let tag along. They never fully brought her into their private circle. As if she wasn’t good enough.”

The baldly honest remark was delivered with affection. It was meant to enlighten—not injure Rae with a reminder of how the other girls had treated Lark as second-best. Besides, Yuna spoke the truth: Jackie and Stella never considered Lark an equal.

“The way they treated my daughter was never right,” she agreed. “But, honestly, I’ve never liked Katherine. She’s catty and superficial. You must achieve a certain net worth before she’ll consider adding you to her posse. Haven’t you ever noticed? All she does is shop and primp.”

“She’s bored, Rae. She didn’t take her divorce well.”

The remark stirred the pity Rae didn’t want to feel. Two years ago, Katherine’s husband, a surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic, ran off with one of his nurses. He’d been a lousy father before that. Rae couldn’t recall a time when he’d shown up for a school activity. Not once. Stella hadn’t been a true-blue friend to Lark, but the kid had deserved better. The ink was barely dry on Katherine’s divorce before the fortyish divorcée was back on the hunt for a new husband. There were women convinced they couldn’t function without a man. They viewed single life as a demotion in status.

In balance, however, the family’s personal issues didn’t matter.

“Can we get something straight?” Rae folded her arms. “On the night of the slumber party, Katherine shouldn’t have left the house. Not even for an errand.”

“I agree.”

“I’ll always wonder if Lark would be alive. If Katherine had stayed home, Lark wouldn’t have gone outside and slipped on ice.”

“I get it. I didn’t mean to upset you.” Leaping up from her chair, Yuna wrapped her arms around Rae. “I love you. I only want you to—”

“Put my life back together.”

“Because you deserve happiness.”

“Whatever.”

“Cheer up. You’ll get there.” Hugging tighter, Yuna rested her head against the lapels of Rae’s coat. “Do you love me?”

“Not when you lay on this much sugar.” Grinning, Rae struggled out of her arms. She shook the tension from her neck as Yuna returned to her chair. Reconsidering, she added, “I do like your kooky side. You’re never boring.”

“Spontaneity is my secret sauce.”

Yuna opened her carton of Thai. It seemed odd when she took a hesitant sniff. She was crazy for the stuff. Rae was about to ask if there was a problem with the carryout when Yuna spoke again.

“Don’t keep me in suspense. Who did you see this morning?”

“I had two seconds of face time with the deplorable Mr. Cox.” Rae chuckled. “The best two seconds of my day, so far.”

“The man you paid to free Quinn’s dog?”

“The one and only. Cox strolled into the drugstore. I was picking up a scrip for my dad on my way to work.”

“Rae, you won the battle. The dog is safe. There’s no reason to pick a fight with Mr. Cox.”

“I didn’t! He took one look at me and darted into the shampoo aisle. Knocked over a display case and kept on moving. There were bottles of shampoo rolling across the floor, but he never looked back.” She chortled. “He couldn’t escape fast enough.”